Backwoods Brewing Company

Visited today 4-19-2024, for a brewery I hadn't been to this brewery before. Nice pine wood interior and kind of a country feel. Had to wait for 15 minutes for a table. For a Friday afternoon I found that unusual for where it is located. Food was good, I had a pulled pork sandwich, as was the beer. Had an enjoyable afternoon. Room for a lot more people outside and in the covered patio when the weather gets nicer, and they hire more staff.

Had a wonderful visit, surprised at how good the beer was. Highly recommend.

 

A big place, out in the sticks. Most of the dining room area are big tents attached to the main and modestly sized building. If you get to sit in the small area in the main room, the ambience is quite good and woody at that. Most of the dining area is the spartan tented area. Dogs are a big presence here. They have a huge selection of locally made beer soaps and they also have wooden beard combs with their logo, laser etched into them. Good barbeque and coleslaw and basic quality beer here.

 

I visited Backwoods when I was driving through SW Washington recently and I am glad I made the stop. The taproom is big and welcoming, with lots of seating (booths and community tables; indoor and outdoor) and cool woodwork everywhere.

There were 12 taps on offer when I visited, including 6 flagship beers and 6 rotating/seasonal beers. I did a taster tray of the flagships and the Ridge Run Stout is a stand-out among them. Service is good and they have a kitchen offering pizza and sandwiches; the non-bar area is kid friendly as well. Definitely worth stopping by if you're in the area.

 

Solid all around. Great little spot just N of the Columbia. Good selection of brews, Doublecutt IPA was killer. Food is good. Pizzas are a bit steep but a personal cheese pizza will only set you back 6 bucks. Great vibe. Will definitely be back.

Picnic tables, great pizza, superb staff, beer on tap and to go, and an incredible array of merch (locally made beer candles and soap).

 

10/8/2021 - I have visited Backwoods in Carson plenty of times. Sometimes with the whole family (two young boys and wife) and sometimes just the wife and I. We camp a lot right around Carson and I can’t think of a time we didn’t visit when we were camping. So, a big positive for us, family friendly.

Vibe - logger/timber themed as you may have guessed. Pre-Covid large indoor eating area and decent sized outdoor area. Our most recent visit was last night. Just the wife and I. Now the seating indoors is limited and the outdoors has 2 large heated tents - one for eating (dog friendly) and one for drinking (?). Wait time is a little long now, but they do have a nice texting system with a link to show your place in line if you wish to leave (not sure where you would go?). Tables are really spaced out.

Beer - Average beer with decent selection. I don’t think any beers will wow you necessarily, but I don’t think you’d be disappointed either. Last night I was wowed by their Citra FH Hazy IPA. Easily the best beer I’ve had by them. They have a lot of beers canned and ready to go. Crowlers and growlers for stuff they don’t. Great for taking back to the camp site

Food - I think this is where they shine, even though the menu is small. Pizza and smoked meats are the highlight. They are both really good in my book. You see patrons come in and drink a Pepsi or get it to go.

Merch - Lots of cool metal art and soap for purchase. Also, shirts, tees, sweatshirts, hats, etc. I would probably buy a shirt but they always seem 100% cotton. Not a fan. And the pint glass is the boring shaker pint. So, sticker it is for me.

Anyway, I am guessing we’ll be back again sometime down the road.

A: Located next to a pasture in the Backwoods you will find Backwoods Brewing. My GPS led me astray at first but nevertheless we found it. Sordove smelly outside, if you've ever been to or lived on a farm you know what I mean. Walking in you will find a nice bar next to the kitchen along the back wall. Some picnic tables for seating inside, a wall of swag and some outdoor seating too. You can tell this is a pretty good locals joint and rightfully so considering location. Overall, pretty tame, relaxing and the smell was left outside.

Q: I have had two Backwoods beers so far and they range from men to averagely meh but nothing tainted or bad. However, the previous reviewers were waaay to generous on the quality of beer here. I'm not sure what they were drinking....inexperienced palates for sure.

S: The service was very nice. I was greeted when I walked up to the bar and sat down. We made small talk and she advised me on some places to stop for sightseeing, local breweries and so on. Very nice and helpful. She seemed to know what she was talking about on the local beer scene/culture.

S: 8 beers today, safe selections, your standards of: Stout, IPA, Pale, IIPA and so on. Having previously tried the Log Yard IPA I went for the new 10.1ABV IIPA at 104IBUs.

The owner and a cohort were available to share new samples in the Portland, OR area, and we caught them at the boutique eatery Ross Island Grocery on Corbett. Their pride in their product was apparent, and well-deserved. Because it is not mentioned on the Beer Advocate site yet, I wanted to rave about their new "Ridgerunner Stout" which could definitely compete with others more widely known such as Obsidian, and even Guinness. Ridgerunner shows true character and complexity from the ground up, with all-naturally produced flavors leaning toward coffee and chocolate over a thick opaque malted base, not overly sweet, but smooth and creamy.

The duo also offered a new and ambitious Blueberry wheat beer. I say ambitious, because it is one of the few blueberry beers to be brewed without the artificial (and much joked-about) purple-blue color others under this label have. In fact the beer was remarkable in that it was almost colorless, if a little cloudy, and it only had the most subtle of blueberry overtones. A very lightly hoppy wheat beer, that could be capable of being seriously refreshing and not overly sweet.

The seriousness with which this brewery takes their creativity and the variety of their output, is bound to make this a microbrewery to watch out for!

Another fun Carson brew-pub. Real neighborhood atmosphere rather than beer-hipsters but the beer is first rate though. Owned and run by a pretty nice guy who might even take you back to explain his brews if he's not busy. This and Acadian Farms--which is not far away--are among the funkiest, funnest brew-pubs to go to in the Columbia River Gorge I think.